Slidell-area levee protection project launches new phase

Having recently raised the levee just south of the First Baptist Church in the Slidell area, local government officials on Thursday announced that they are starting work on another phase of a project designed to protect most of eastern St. Tammany Parish from future hurricane-related flooding. Contractors will raise parts of a levee segment starting at U.S. 11 and running to the Schneider Canal pump station just north of Oak Harbor Boulevard.

The project is expected to be completed in early 2012, Parish President Kevin Davis and Slidell Mayor Freddy Drennan said while standing near the work zone.

Thanks to about $339,000 in parish funds, the levee, currently between 8 and 9 feet high, will be raised to least 15 feet and should provide a more formidable barrier against storm surge for thousands of nearby households. That segment will form part of a larger, $250 million network of protective levees in the south Slidell area being built piecemeal and, for the moment, solely with city, parish and state funds.

Drennan called the project "paramount" to his constituents, and Davis added, "The disaster that happened here (during Hurricane Katrina) -- we don't want to see happen again."

Slidell Councilman Sam Abney, who joined the parish president and mayor, said residents of eastern St. Tammany will "sleep a little easier at night" as the improved flood protection materializes.

Authorities have estimated that Katrina swamped the Slidell area with several feet of surge as far as five miles inland, causing more than $1 billion in damages.

Despite not having secured federal funding yet due to what Davis portrayed as "bureaucracy-related issues," Slidell, St. Tammany and Louisiana have forged on with efforts to implement the improved protective levee network.

"We (could not) wait any more," Davis said.

The three governments say they just paid $1.16 million to double to 12 feet the height of a 2,000-foot earthen berm from U.S. 11 to the Norfolk Southern Railroad right of way. Slidell and St. Tammany put up $2.4 million to install a brand new levee segment from Interstate 10 to the Lakeshore Estates area levee -- only punch list items are left.